


I Could Have Made You Stay

by SpringZero123



Series: Spring Writes Stuff [4]
Category: The Boxtrolls (2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:40:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24805603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpringZero123/pseuds/SpringZero123
Relationships: Eggs (The Boxtrolls)/Winifred Portley-Rind
Series: Spring Writes Stuff [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1784281
Comments: 1
Kudos: 48





	I Could Have Made You Stay

She is now successful, rich, and had married to another rich fellow. That was everything that Lord Portley-Rind had always wanted for his Winnifred, and she had gotten them all for him. Had accomplished all this, just for her father. 

She hopes when he looks down at her, he's the proud father that she always wished to have.

Winnie made her way towards her huge and empty bedroom, filled with expensive but unnecessary decor everywhere. She's old enough to buy and own everything she wants, she's 60 for god's sake. 

But she's alone, and lonely. 

She had it all, yes, but is all of this was what she truly wanted? If Eggs was only here with her, he would be so proud and happy for her right now.

Winnie sighed, a small tear running down her wrinkled cheek, as she remembered all the times she had with him.

_She entered his room with a slight frown, as she was greeted with a sight of him doing something on his worktable. It was around early evening when she arrived at his house._

_Her father had recently scolded her for getting a low grade on one of her subjects, and right now, all she really needed was comfort. Eggs was the only person who knew how to do that._

_"Ooh, what are you doing there, sweetie?" Winnie asked Eggs, wrapping playful arms around him, making him laugh._

_"Ah, it's a small project that I've been currently working on," he replied, as he continued to do whatever he's doing. Winnie watched his movements closely, gently resting her head on top of his._

_She was always fascinated by his talent. His father was a wise man, and she could clearly tell where he got his skills. Winnie kissed the top of his head lightly, making him sigh in content._

_"You've already worked so hard today babe, why don't we go out and eat something first?" Winnie tried to ask him, as he placed the tools he was holding on his workplace table._

_Oh good, she has his attention._

_Eggs turned his head towards her, giving her a playful smirk. His hands immediately found her hips as he stood up from his seat, throwing her a raised eyebrow._

_"I knew you wanted something from me since you entered the room, what is it?" He asked, and something in her expression quickly changed. This made him more worried, as he placed a hand on her cheek._

_"Win, what's wrong?"_

_"Father threw dirty words at me again," Winnie told him, avoiding his gaze, as she sighed in defeat._

_Eggs knitted his eye brows. "Is this about the cheese you stole from his office, or is this about something else?" He tried to joke to make the atmosphere lighter, and it worked like a charm as she laughed softly before hitting him on his shoulder._

_"You dork," Winnie said while shaking her head, giving him a quick peck on his cheek. "No it's not about that," she sighed, gently resting her hands on his shoulders._

_"It was because he found out that I had a failing grade on one of my subjects."_

_Eggs gasped. "What!?" He removed his hands from her waist, and crossed his arms playfully on his chest._

_Winnie gave him a raised eyebrow. "What are you so mad about? Are you gonna scold me too?" Winnie asked him._

_"He has NO RIGHT to make my girl sad like that!" He shouted to himself, stomping his foot on the ground angrily, looking at Winnie with a frown. She laughed at him with a wide smile, and he smiled back at her as soon as he saw that smile._

_That's his girl._

_He suddenly pulled her closer to him, and before Winnie can complain any further, Eggs suddenly peppered her cheeks with soft kisses, making her giggle like an idiot._

_"Eggs!" She tried to pull away from him, but at some point he stopped his attack, and just ended up hugging her tightly with a sigh._

_Winnie laughed at his actions, and just melted into his arms with a contented sigh. No one else can make her feel like this. Except Eggs._

_"Thank you," she whispered._

_Eggs pulled away from her, looking at her with a smile. '"About the food, you still want to get some? We still have time to spare before it gets too late."_

_When he didn't get any reply from him, he smirked at her. "My treat."_

_Winnie smirked back at him. "Sure."_

Those were the simpler times for them, where they were trapped in their own little world. Her lips quivered heavily, trying to control the tears flowing out of her eyes from all the beautiful memories. 

Beautiful memories that she made too painful to remember.

_"Eggs, where are you taking me?" Winnie asked in between giggles, as Eggs guided her to wherever he's taking her, with his hands covering her eyes to not spoil his big surprise._

_"We'll get there when we get there, Win," he teased, playfully kissing her cheek, enjoying his time to watch her be impatient._

_When they finally stopped walking, Eggs placed a gentle kiss to her cheek, making her laugh quietly._

_"When I remove my hands, promise me to close them until I tell you when you can look. Promise?" Eggs asked, and even though Winnie had her eyes still covered by his hands, she could tell that he was pouting cutely._

_She nodded without a single word, as Eggs removed his hands from her eyes. He smiled when she kept her word in not opening her eyes until he says so._

_Winnie can only hear his footsteps walking all over the place. Thoughts are now swirling inside her head, what can his surprise be? After all, she only got like the 7th highest honour within their batch, and Eggs knows that her father was not pleased with her performance as much as anyone else._

_She felt him go back beside her, as he wrapped an arm around her. What is he up to now? "Alright, open them."_

_When she opened her eyes, her heart immediately melted._

_Winnie looked at Eggs with a baffled expression on her face. "Please don't tell me that you didn't made this entire artwork of us having silly faces made entirely out of mutli colored LEDs just for me."_

_He placed a hand behind his neck, avoiding her gaze shyly._

_"I figured, if I could give you a congratulations gift for being in the top 10 in your whole batch since your father would just make you feel down. I know it's not much, but-"_

_Winnie cut off his sentence by hugging him tightly, burying her face on the crook of his neck. "It's perfect, thank you," she whispered softly._

_What did she ever do to deserve someone like him?_

_Eggs wrapped his arms around her, closing his eyes. They stood like that for a moment, just holding on to each other with closed eyes._

_Oh how she wished they had stayed like that forever. Winnie carefully tucked herself on her bed, closing her wrinkly eyes as she tried to fall asleep._

_But the nightmares of all their memories kept haunting her in her dreams._

_When Winnie entered the garage of Eggs' house, there was too much going on everywhere._

_There were toolboxes scattered in all the wrong places, wires and bare copper wires were sprawled in every corner of the small garage, the old sofa was filled with all the different components, it was just too much to look at._

_And when she looked at his usual workplace, there he was, drilling something on the table. She carefully walked towards him, knowing how scary he is when he gets distracted while he's trying to do something._

_Eggs finally threw the drill angrily to the floor, his breathing clearly unsteady from all the frustration._

_Winnie just stared at him from the distance, and when Eggs finally realized that she was just standing there, he sighed tiredly._

_She slowly walked towards him, looking at him with a worried expression on her face. "Eggs...?" Winnie asked him, as he just stood there, lowering his head down to look at the floor._

_Everything has not been easy for him ever since his father died. He had to take over his father's work, but he had to sacrifice his education as well._

_When Winnie finally stood in front of him, he brought up his head to look at her. He looks so pained and tired at the same time._

_"Come here," she said softly, and without thinking twice Eggs just came to her and hugged her with a heavy sigh, defeated._

_"My poor boy," she cooed softly to him, shaking her head lightly before bringing one of her hands to the back of his head, running her fingers through his hair softly. His sigh meant that he appreciates her comfort, and that thought alone made her smile._

After that though, everything that had happened to them went downhill. Winnie couldn't sleep thinking about it, so she sat up on her bed in defeat, looking at the sheets of her bed. 

_"You're overworking yourself again."_

_Eggs slammed the soldering iron angrily against the table, making Winnie flinch slightly. Before she left him yesterday, he told her that someone needed repairs for their broken microwave and he promised that he's going to take a rest after._

_Now look at what happened._

_Eggs shook his head angrily, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "There's something wrong with the magnetron, and it's just not working when I try to turn it on."_

_He grabbed the small piece of machinery from the table, as Winnie started to walk towards him. "I tried everything I could last night, but nothing has even worked!"_

_She reached out for his shoulder, prompting him to look at her. "Eggs, calm down," Winnie told him with a worried expression._

_But she can see that something in his eyes had changed, like he has finally snapped._

_Eggs harshly removed her hand on his shoulder, glaring daggers at her as she took a step back away from him. "What the heck is your problem?" Winnie scowled, raising an eyebrow at him._

_"My problem?" Eggs scoffed, taking a brave step towards her, as they glared at each other with raging fire in their eyes. "I have been trying to fix this goddamn problem for more than 10 hours without any sleep, and that's not even the end of all my problems!"_

_"Then why didn't you take a nap, or went back to sleep and call it a day? You literally promised to take a rest last night and you're here to tell me that you haven't slept in 10 hours!?" Winnie retorted, crossing her arms._

_"You don't even know when this piece of shit is needed, I lied about resting last night so you can just leave already!" He snapped, as she gasped, glaring at him._

_"Then why didn't you just tell me the truth!?" She snapped back, shutting him up for good._

_Eggs continued to glare at her silently, with her doing the same. She doesn't know why they are arguing over a small thing, but the way he looked at her, he's tired._

_Finally, he shook his head after a short while. "I lied, because it was the only way to keep you away from me." And with that, he walked towards the bicycle near the exit of the small garage._

_"Hey!" Winnie shouted, but he ignored her and started to drive the bicycle._

_"Stop! You come back here!" She tried to chase him down, but when she got to the exit of the garage, Eggs was no where in sight._

_She never thought that that was the last time that she's ever going to see him again._

_She was already too late._

Winnie didn't even noticed that she was crying, not until she brought a hand on her wrinkly cheek. She remembered the news she heard that time, of how a boy on a bike died on the crossroads not far from his home. 

She still blamed herself to this very day, even after 40 long years. It was her fault that he had to go through that accident, if she only tried harder to calm him down when they had that fight.

They could have lived a happy life, with a happy family, and a happy ending. If only she made him stay with her, then he wouldn't be gone only as a memory. 

"We could have been happy, but I couldn't make you stay," she whispered.


End file.
